“You were having fun. That could never annoy me.” Natalya’s voice took on a serious tone. “I know you lied to Lily. About the therapist.”
Evie looked away. “I didn’t lie.”
“‘Georgina says I’m doing fine.’ I believe those were the words you used. Did she really tell you that?”
“It doesn’t matter what she said. I’m fine.”
Natalya’s eyes got a strange glow in them. Like there were small fires in her pupils.
“I’m going to ask you a favor,” Natalya said. “Don’t use the words ‘I’m fine’ around me. I don’t care for them. I’d rather hear how you really feel.”
“I thought you could always tell what I’m feeling,” Evie said sharply. “That you could feel my emotions or whatever.”
She didn’t like that Natalya could sense her. Evie herself didn’t even know what she was feeling half the time. Why should Natalya be permitted the information?
“I may be able to sense them, but I don’t know the reason for their presence. And I don’t sense you all the time. If I don’t focus, only strong emotion gets through.” Natalya looked at Evie, eyes hard. “I am not owed your thoughts or your worries. But I would like to hear them.”
Evie bit her lip. She’d managed to keep her emotions locked down tight so far. It left her numb, and numb was better than the pain she’d experience if she started to feel what had happened. Sharing even one element of it felt like knocking over a domino. If she opened up about one thing, everything else would come crashing in after it.
But Natalya was still looking at her. And Evie had a feeling she wouldn’t let up until she got what she wanted.
“She doesn’t get it,” Evie said after a moment. “Georgina, I mean. She doesn’t get what it was like.”
“With Varro?”
Evie took a sharp breath. She already hated this, already wanted to stop. It made her go on the offensive.
“Yes. And neither do you. No one does. No one can even begin to understand what it was like, and I’m tired of pretending they can.”
Evie closed her mouth tight. She’d raised her voice. She’d almost been yelling. Frustration and fear made Evie hug herself.
Natalya was silent for so long Evie thought the conversation was over. Then she leaned against the dining table, crossing her arms and regarding Evie with steely eyes.
“Do you know why I’m here? At the Court of Chains, and not in the realm where I was created?”
Evie shook her head.
“I was made in the fires of Sin,” Natalya said. “A place of pleasure, pain, and everything in between. In a place of total freedom. A place I barely remember. 150 years ago, a human summoned me to this world. That summoning led me to a man named Roland Whitlock. For over two decades, I was bound to him, forced to endure his desires, his cruelties, and whatever he let others do to me. He forced me to be his slave.”
Natalya stopped, giving Evie a moment to understand what she was saying. What the implications of slavery meant for a creature like her. Even realizing that Evie couldn’t believe it. Natalya was so powerful and intimidating. To think anyone could hold her against her will was hard to believe.
“How did he do that?”
“The true name of a fiend is a powerful thing. In the hands of a witch or warlock, performing the proper rites and rituals, it can summon and bind one of our kind. Roland sacrificed much for the location of a text that held my name. I’ve since ensured there are no more of such texts.”
Natalya’s face was stern and emotionless. “My indenture only ended because there was a fire at his home. It took his house and his family, and it broke the symbols he used to bind me. I was free of his influence. Free to do what I wanted. I could have goneback home. I killed him instead.” Her expression didn’t change as she said it. “The punishment for killing your summoner is a millennium on the mortal plane. It was no price at all. I made him beg for it. I may not carry the same scars you do, Evie, but I understand the weight of them.”
Evie stared at her, stunned. Natalya’s voice was firm and unwavering. Her stance was confident and assertive. She was so strong. So in control. And she understood.
“I didn’t know you’d gone through that.”
“No one does.”
“Then why are you telling me?”
Natalya’s face changed for the first time since the conversation started. Her stern, serious expression softened a little. It was such a small change Evie wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t spent so much time looking at Natalya’s eyes.
“Because you needed to know.” She pulled out a dining chair. “Sit down. Please.”
